Finding Him, Raising Him, Loving Him
by Shekat55
Summary: When I first saw small, blonde-haired, blue eyed boy I knew I wanted to keep him. He was my beginning, he is my present, and he will always be my future. Finding him, raising him, loving him. This is mine and Naruto's story, the story of how we became us.


Chapter 1: The Beginning

An alarm clock flashed 6:14 and not even a second before it went off a pale hand flashed out from beneath the bed covers and turned it off. A clump of blankets on the nearby bed started to move around. Soon a head popped out, with a tangled mass of black hair attached to it, followed by an arm, then a leg, and so on and so forth until the body of a teenage girl could be seen. Just as the girl was about to climb off of the bed and get ready for the day, a soft thump of feet coming up the stairs could be heard.

The footsteps stopped when a female voice called out, "Kate, hun! It's time to get out of bed!"

"I'm already up, Ma!" Kate called back.

Kate rolled her eyes slightly with a small smile on her face and went back to getting ready for school. Kathryn McCullough was, pretty much, your average American teenager. She went to school everyday, did her chores, ate dinner with the family every night; normal stuff. The only things that were slightly different about her were that she was smart, well not Einstein smart or anything, and the fact that she liked fan fiction, anime, and manga.

Going by the fact that she likes fan fiction it would be safe to assume that she likes to read. Which in fact she does and in her own words, 'needs to start going to some BAA (Book-Aholics Anonymous) meetings.'

About 20 minutes later Kate came down the stairs clad in blue jeans, black cowboy boots, and a black tank top covered by a red hoodie. Her shoulder-length black hair was thrown up in a sloppy pony tail; her green eyes intensified by black mascara coated lashes. A slight dusting of freckles could be seen across her nose and across the tops of her cheeks as the morning light splashed onto her face from the kitchen window.

Kate grabbed all of her school things, other necessities, and a Pop-Tart before kissing her mother on the cheek and heading to school. She took a shortcut through the woods at the back of her mother's property and started on the journey to school.

Kate had been walking through the forest for coming on seven minutes. She should have been near the school, when she heard a slight whistling sound coming from behind her. Now Kate, being the rational person she was, knew that if someone was shooting, or throwing a sharp and pointy object, at her then her best bet was to stop and wait for the attacker to approach her. She, being 19 years old, 5ft. , and slightly over-weight at 200lbs, knew that unless her attacker was fat and slow they would be able to catch up with her if she decided to run.

Kate set down her math book and binder and slowly turned around. She held her hands in the air to show she had no weapon and hoped that she looked relatively harmless. The man in front of her was wearing what looked like a black body suit covered with white-grey armor in all of the important places. An ivory colored mask adorned his face and it looked like The Village Hidden in the Leaves symbol adorned the forehead area.

The man came toward Kate at a slow walk and asked her something in Japanese. Kate gave the man what her favorite teacher, Mrs. Castle, called the deer-in-the-headlights look. You know that blank look you get whenever you're either not paying attention in class and get asked a question or you're just really confused? It's that look. The man seemed to get what she was trying to convey and nodded. He pointed to her book and binder and then made a motion for her to walk.

Kate picked up her things and started to walk. The man seemed to be keeping up with her effortlessly, almost as if it bored him. No, that's not really the word. It was more like he was purposefully slowing himself down so that Kate could keep up with _him._ If this was all real then the man standing next to her would be an _actual_ Leaf shinobi. He wasn't just any shinobi, he was an ANBU. The most elite of the elite besides the Hokage and the Sannin.

Kate walked on thinking in a kind of auto-pilot for the next few minutes. It was only when she almost tripped on a tree root that she snapped out of her trance. Kate started to walk again and one thought reverberated throughout her mind. This is actually real.

A couple of minutes of following after the ANBU man they reached Konoha. The two walked through the gates and passed two young men sitting in a small guard house near the front of the gate. Going by their appearances Kate guessed that they were young Izumo and Kotetsu. One young man had a bandana-like headband and the other had a bandage wrapping from one side of his face, across his nose, and then to the other side. Kate gave them a small smile as they passed by when she heard, and saw, what looked like Izumo scolding Kotetsu for doing something.

As Kate and the ANBU walked down the main road, it ran straight through the center of town, she noticed a group of people surrounding something. They were shouting and yelling, Kate could see those people were throwing rocks and hitting something with sticks. She calmly gave her things to the ANBU standing next to her and walked towards the crowd. The ANBU did nothing and decided to watch and see what she would do. Kate slipped in between the people and slowly made her way towards the front of the half circle.

Kate's eyes became hard as she witnessed a little boy, that couldn't be any older than 4, get beat upon by grown men and women. She could feel her face slip into a blank mask as she pulled out the push-knife she had hidden up her sleeve. Kate walked towards the man that was in the very center, he seemed to be the one everyone was looking at, and stopped when she was close enough behind him that you could barely stick a thin magazine in between them. She brought her knife up to the side of his neck, near the top of his ear, and applied a little pressure.

Kate felt the man stiffen when he felt the cold metal of her blade touch his neck. Kate leaned her head over the man's shoulder, near his ear, and whispered in a dangerously calm voice one of the only words in Japanese she knew, "_Nokosu_.1"

Kate then proceeded to drag her knife from the top of his ear down to the curve of his neck, leaving a small line of red in it's wake. The man quickly moved away from her and walked quite fast to get away from her and the boy in front of her. After the rest of the crowd saw what happened to the main attacker they quickly scurried away, lest they be the new vent for Kate's frustrations.

Kate walked towards the boy that was curled into a small ball on the ground and nudged him with her boot. When the boy slowly, hesitantly, raised his small head up and looked at her with fear filled blue eyes, Kate held her hand out to him. He looked at her with suspicious eyes and Kate just smiled and waggled her fingers at him. Slowly the boy reached out an arm and put his hand in Kate's. Kate pulled the little boy up until he was standing on his feet. She bent down and looked him over and ran her hands along his little body to check and see if he had any serious wounds. She didn't find any and stood back up.

Kate looked down at the small boy and thought for a minute before hooking her hands under his armpits and picked him up. The little boy's body tensed when Kate reached down to pick him up. He slowly let his muscles relax as she settled him on her hip and walked back toward the ANBU man.

The ANBU, still carrying Kate's books, led her to The Hokage Tower. They walked at a slow, meandering kind of pace and reached the tower about 30 minutes later. When a little 80 lb. child falls asleep on your hip the walk can become a little longer. Kate was surprised when she first noticed that the boy had fallen asleep when she was carrying him. She honestly didn't think he would be comfortable enough to fall asleep around her.

The ANBU led Kate to a pair of doors and knocked quietly on it. There was a reply and the ANBU held the door open for her. Kate carefully walked through the doorway making sure not to hit any part of the little boy on anything. Kate breathed a small sigh of relief once she was all the way in. She looked up and saw the Hokage with two other men standing in front of him.

They were both shinobi, considering that they were both wearing Leaf headbands, and they had this odd looking character on the back of their vests. The character wasn't very big, but it was noticeable. One of them had a bandana type headband and the other had white-blonde hair put up in a pony tail with his bandana holding back his bangs.

Kate knew who these two men were. The blonde one was Inoichi Yamanaka, the head of the T&I division, and the other was Ibiki Morino, Inoichi's protégé. Kate looked towards the Hokage next and saw her ANBU talking to the Hokage in fast Japanese. The Hokage nodded and said something to Inoichi. Inoichi replied and turned around and walked towards Kate and the little boy.

Inoichi's hands made a familiar sign and Kate quickly pushed any Naruto related knowledge to the back of her mind and thought of a giant titanium wall surrounding in a large ball. Kate let Inoichi sift through harmless memories as her grip on the boy tightened just the littlest bit. A few minutes went by and Kate could feel Inoichi slip from her mind. Inoichi turned around and said something to the Hokage and walked back to where he was standing before.

The Hokage beckoned Kate up to his desk. He did a few hand signs and tapped her forehead2. Kate stood up and set a hand on the desk using the other to support the boy. After the dizziness passed she stood back up and the Hokage asked, "Can you understand me now?"

Hello, anyone reading this! I'm not sure how long this is going to last, but I'm quite interested in what I'm doing, so I think I'll go with it. If you have any comments please put them in a review. I'll most likely take them into consideration and try to improve upon my writing, grammar, etc. Thank you for reading.

1: _Nokosu_ – Japanese for 'leave'.

2: I made up a jutsu for that, I just didn't have the Hokage say it. It was _Hon'yaku suru_ it just means translate.

P.S. I'm so proud of myself! I just wrote 3 ½ pages on my Microsoft Word! That's an accomplishment!

A/U 2: Just btw on fanfiction it deleted out a few of my words and that kinda messes a few things up, so I'm re-uploading it.


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